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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Soft Orange Cookies with Orange Zested Glaze

We've been talking a lot about "girly" flavors at our house lately. This is prompted by my husband's proclamation that mint chocolate chip ice cream is "girly". Orange is also a girly flavor according to him (but cheesecake is not. Don't ask me how that works.)

Anyways, I'm fine with that because it means I have two dozen of these all to myself; thank you very much. Although it will probably shock you, I do believe in moderation. Usually when I bake I sample a few bites and give the rest away.

Not these.

I have purposely lost count of how many I've eaten. (Although I am sick, and everyone knows you're supposed to have lots of Vitamin C when you've got a cold, so I'm pretty sure these cookies have lots of medicinal value.)

This is officially one of my favorite cookie recipes. These are soft and orangey and a bit floury (but in a good, filling, fabulously textured way). I highly recommend them.

Annnnd... not to be snooty or anything. But I'm a pretty good cookie judger. I mean, I've been practicing for most of my life, so I think I'm a pretty reliable source. (Although if you're not female you might want to double-think this because husband didn't care for these much. He preferred the Oreo Cheesecake cookies which totally weirded me out... I don't think cream cheese really belongs in cookies, you know?)

For the Glaze: (totally not optional- you have to do this part!)
-1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
-1 tablespoon orange zest
-Fresh orange juice (I used 3 Tbsp and it was really runny, so you might want to try about 2 Tbsp)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Using a mixer, cream the butter, orange zest, and sugar together. Add egg and orange juice. Slowly add the dry ingredients until well incorporated.

Scoop dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and roll into smooth round Tbsp sized balls (or a bit smaller)*. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes or until very lightly golden on the bottoms. Don’t overbake or they will be a bit to dry and lose the perfect texture. (Baked mine for 10-11 mins and they were perfect.) Let cool on a wire rack.

Mix the confectioners’ sugar, orange zest and enough orange juice to get a glaze consistency and mix until smooth and creamy. Pour glaze over the tops of the cookies and let set. You can use lemons in place of the oranges if you'd like a different variation.

*If you want your cookie tops to be prettier than mine, you can smush each dough ball down a bit with the bottom of a drinking glass sprayed in Pam, and take a minute or two off the baking time. The flat surface will probably be better for holding glaze on anyways.

PS- These cookies are GREAT, because they are just as good a few days after as day-of. Keep them in an airtight container and they won't get dried out or soggy or anything. Love cookies like this!

3
comments:

these look so good, katie! i love orange rolls, so i think i would love these too. plus i'm sure they are quicker than orange rolls. that's so funny, i think cream cheese kinda belongs in everything :) haha

I'm Katie, and I'm glad you are here! If you like to dip things in chocolate, we can be friends.

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